


Two Birds On A Wire

by Bees_Stars_and_Snow



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, Bucky Barnes & Tony Stark Friendship, Bucky Barnes in Bucharest, Civil War (Marvel), Domestic Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Established Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Genderfluid Bucky Barnes, Hurt Steve Rogers, LGBTQ Character, M/M, Marvel Universe, Nonbinary Character, One-Sided Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Original Character(s), Pansexual Tony Stark, Pre-Civil War (Marvel), Steve Rogers Angst, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Tony Angst, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 10:37:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21492955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bees_Stars_and_Snow/pseuds/Bees_Stars_and_Snow
Summary: Inspired by Regina Spektor's Two Birds.A prank gone wrong, poison for a super soldier, and a few mind controlled Avengers.  Everything began with Tony, and everything will end with him as he tries to live a life of chaos and pain that could possibly turn into everything he ever wanted. He hides in Wakanda, becoming best friends with Bucky,  work buddies with Shuri, and lovers with Steven Rogers, the last one harder that he ever thought possible. All of them have their respective scars, but Tony creates his own when he realizes that Angels can still die.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Kudos: 7





	1. Rainbow Death Foam

"Peter! Fuck! Peter Benjamin! Get your ass down here you dumbass child!" Tony's cries rang through the kitchen, carrying up from the genius's workshop as Steve and Natasha looked at Peter skeptically, unaware of the gravity of the situation.

After a few minutes of continuous swearing from Tony, Steve finally approached Peter who was sitting in one of the top corners of the kitchen with a bag of froot loops in his hand, blissfully oblivious to the shouts of his mentor. "Peter? Are you going to go down there to help him or not?"

Peter looked down at the super soldier and grinned. "Nope. Never. Not a chance. Won't even think about it."

Steve blinked in surprise a few times, not used to the spiderling refusing to help someone. "Oh. Alright?" He backed up a bit while watching the young man stand up on the ceiling, spilling froot loops everywhere as he ran from the room. Steve turned to Natasha, confusion written on his face as he made a move towards the stairs to Tony's workshop. "I'm going to go see what's wrong."

"I'm coming with you." Natasha had a strange feeling that something was up between Peter and Tony due to the teenager's odd behavior and the fact that Tony hadn't come charging into the kitchen of the common area yet.

Both Steve and Natasha worked their way cautiously over to the stairs and started down them, careful not to make any sound as they descended the staircase. Steve was the first one down and he froze when he saw what all the commotion was about, causing Natasha to bump into his back before stopping herself. Steve quickly ran to the glass door to the workshop, knocking a few times to get Tony's attention and to get the brunette to stop screaming for one second. "Get me the fuck out of here Capsicle! I don't want to die like this!"

Steve sighed as he unlocked the door with the help of Friday. "Calm down Tony. You aren't going to die. It's not even that bad." Pulling open the door, Steve looked at the wall of foam in front of him that was hundreds of different colors and tried his best not to cringe at the insane neon coloring or laugh at Tony's predicament. The entire workshop was filled with foam that was probably taller than Steve and Tony was stuck swinging from a pipe on the ceiling, clinging to it like a koala. "Come on Tones. Get down from there and just walk to me. It will be completely fine if you just follow my voice."

"For once in my goddamn life Cap, I'm going to ask for your help." He took a deep breath and looked the soldier straight in the eye. "Mainly because I'M FUCKING SHORT AND I'LL SUFFOCATE IN THIS SHIT!"

Steve sighed and rubbed his hand through his hair, looking at the multi colored wall in front of him. "Do you have a leaf blower? Or at least something like that."

Tony smiled darkly. "Yeah I do. It's in the left hand corner of the room. UNDER THE FOAM!"

Steve sighed. "I still can't believe you turned a leaf blower into a flamethrower." Without another word, Steve took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and charged into the foam in the general direction of Tony as Natasha watched, discreetly recording everything.

Tony kept on shouting at Steve as the blonde blindly moved through the workshop towards him until everyone heard a large crash and Steve groaned. "Oh, that's going to leave a mar- OH GOD! It's in my mou- uhhhhhg! So dry! It tastes like sand!" There were various spitting noises followed by coughing as Steve finally climbed on top of a table and was able to catch his breath, quickly wiping away a thick layer of the foam with his hand. After doing his best to wipe off the foam, he was still waist deep in a sick mash of colors and called Friday. "Fri, can you issue an Avengers emergency alert and tell them to get down here?" Coughing even more, Steve tried to spit the taste out of his mouth without much luck, a thick feeling he hadn't felt in years filling his lungs quickly. Steve tried not to let his watery coughs make him double over with the sharp ache in his chest, but he stumbled on the table a bit and nearly fell over backwards, gasping as he felt his chest wheeze painfully. 

"No! Friday! Don't do that! Just call Bruce, we need a doctor!" Tony nearly lost his grip on the pipe and fell into the thick foam. He was right and if he had walked through it, he would have suffocated.

Friday's voice had a clipped, serious tone when she responded. "The emergency request has been sent Mr. Rogers. You should expect company in a few seconds."

As if on cue, Clint and Bruce ran down the stairs in a panic, only to stop dead when they saw the foam filling Tony's workplace. Clint turned to Natasha. "Where's Cap?" 

"See that big mound of foam a few yards from the monkey hanging from the ceiling?" Natasha frowned at the reaction Clint had to the news that Captain America had fallen into a trap so effectively, but she quickly explained the situation. "Tony got caught in one of Peter's traps and climbed to the ceiling to escape it, but he got stuck and asked for help, so Steve went in and got covered in the stuff. Now he's stuck on the table because this shit does stuff to people."

Clint froze. "What kind of stuff?" More Avengers trailed down into the small space, quickly followed by a panicked Peter who looked around the workshop in surprise.

Without answering Clint, Nat grabbed Peter's shoulder firmly as Steve coughed harder, bending over with the force of the movement. "Pete, we need to know what this stuff is. It's making Steve really sick and we need to know how to fix it."

Peter paled. "This isn't mine. I had a foam bomb, but it was small and white, only supposed to cover a few tables at the most."

T'challa came charging down the stairs after his younger sister who was looking at the Avengers desperately. "Peter is telling the truth! I helped him build it and everything. We were going to test its prank capabilities today on Tony, but sort of chemicals must have been spilt on it to make it much stronger and possibly dangerous." She paused, looking over the faces of the Avengers and looking at Steve who was doubled over in pain. "Okay, so very dangerous. Either way, we need to get the Captain and Tony out of there."

Everyone turned when they heard a large bang from the workshop, Tony nowhere to be seen and Steve kneeling in the foam, ready to keel over from the coughing. “Mother fucker! That hurt!” Everyone ran to the glass windows to make sure that Tony was alright until the foam moved around violently and the genius popped up on the table Steve was on, covered head to toe in bright purple and pink. The brunette grabbed onto Steve’s shoulders, the foam thicker than he thought, reminding him of walking through a giant block of jello when he was bored in his teens except drier than the desert in afghanistan. It was not a pleasant experience and he had nearly suffocated to death before he got out on the other side. Tony latched on tightly to the super soldier, feeling the shakiness of his lungs as he tried to cough out his spleen, blood soaking the front of his shirt, almost invisible in the ruby colored foam all over his arms. “Uh, guys… we need emergency medical right now.”

Before another word was spoken, Sam threw himself into the room quickly followed by Natasha and Vision. They didn’t care if the foam was poisonous or not, they just got in and pulled Steve out as it finally dawned on Wanda that she might be able to help. Tony quickly followed the Avengers that carried Steve as the soldier went quiet, finally passing out from either pain or the amount of blood he coughed up. Wanda couldn’t do anything against the foam though, not even push it to the side, because somehow it canceled out her powers. Peter just stood in the corner, horror and guilt trapped in the tears spilling onto his cheeks as Clint held him back from running towards the heroes so the young man didn’t get covered in the foam too. He was just stuck watching as Bruce ushed all of the heroes covered in rainbow vomit up the stairs, demanding that they should all be quarantined in his lab for safety. Tony refused to let go of Steve’s hand the whole time, swearing and blaming himself as everyone was ushered up the stairs after Sam who was carrying Steve bridal style. 


	2. Guardian Angels Can Die

The Avengers were all silent. They were all in the common area’s living room, waiting for news about Steve and Natasha. They were the only two that had been affected by the foam in any way at all, but Natasha just got a nasty cold and a mild rash on her back while Steve had almost died. The foam had been acidic to Steve’s skin, burning holes in his arms and legs as his lungs were torn apart from the small amount of the rainbow vomit that he had accidentally inhaled. Bruce was working on helping the two recover from the ordeal, but everyone was silently panicking, knowing that Steve probably wouldn’t be able to come back from this one. 

Anyone left alive from the 1940s that Steve knew would have been called, but since only Peggy Carter was left alive and she didn’t remember him, she was left from the call list. That left only one person, and Tony was desperate to do whatever he could for the dying soldier, so he ran to his lab that was next to Bruce’s to pull up as much information about the Winter Soldier that he possibly could. All he knew about the guy was that Steve had destroyed three helicarriers and half of Washington DC to save him from Hydra, and if that didn’t mean that this man was super fucking important, than nothing possibly could. So, Tony brought up everything he could, from fuzzy sightings in the 50s to murder speculations in the SHEILD database. Tony shuddered whenever he came across any information having to do with the brainwashing of James Barnes, knowing full well what it felt like to have a vital part of yourself taken away by constant abuse. (Fucking thanks Dad. Not.) Tony just kept searching for anything he could until someone came into the lab and he quickly shut everything down to keep people from prying. Turning, he saw his science bro and let out a sigh of relief, letting himself turn the computers back on because Bruce knew. Bruce knew everything about Tony, not as much as Rhodey per say, but close to everything. “Hey Bruce. How are they doing? Does Natasha still have that nasty cold?”

Bruce sighed, looking at the computer screens covered in information about Sergeant James Barnes, knowing fully well that Tony just wanted the information on a certain soldier. “Steve’s going steady. No better, but thankfully no worse either.” He paused, walking over to Tony and sitting on his desk, playing with the fabric of his shirt. “His blood tests are a fucked up mess though. That foam stuff is acting like some sort of antibody and trying to eradicate his blood altogether like it’s some sort of virus.” Bruce fell silent and looked uncomfortable as Tony rubbed his hands over his face. 

“That’s not the worst part.” Tony bent over in his chair, bracing his elbows on his knees as he put his head between his legs to stop the thoughts swimming around in his brain. “Is it? Something’s terribly wrong. Right?”

Bruce bit his lip, trying to tame the nervousness. “He isn’t healing.”

“What?” Tony’s head shot up. “What do you mean?”

Bruce sighed. “It’s exactly like I just said. Usually, there are certain things that happen to a human body when it starts to close an open wound. You know, some really tell tale signs. The thing is, Steve usually has the serum in his blood speed up the process of healing a lot faster than a normal human, but now when the healing is supposed to begin, there is nothing. It doesn't start at all and I can’t fix it. He isn’t even healing like a normal human being. He just… isn’t able to.”

Tony glared at Bruce menacingly. “You do know that I’m not as stupid as I look. You don’t have to dumb it down for me. I know science shit too.”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “Not when you are this stressed Tony. I can tell that what I just said now went completely over your head.”

Tony moved to protest, but thought better of it because Bruce was 100% correct. “Dammit Bruce.” He rubbed his eyes, leaning back on his chair and trying to talk past the lump in his throat. “Is he… how… god fucking dammit.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “Can I see him?”

Bruce sighed with pity in his eyes. “I’ll let you in for a bit, but you can’t tell anyone else.” Tony nodded and jumped to his feet when Bruce started walking back to his lab and leading Tony to the quarantine section where both Steve and Natasha were residing currently. Tony could feel the spy eyeing him through the glass on her door as he fidgeted nervously while waiting for Bruce to enter the passcode and scan his card. Before Tony could go running into the room though, Bruce placed a hand on his chest. “Tony, I want you to know that he might look really bad right now, but I’m going to do my best to make this right.” The genius nodded and pushed forward desperately, being stopped by Bruce once again. “I’m just letting you know now that I’m only alowing you in because I know how you feel and I know that if you weren’t such a giant dick to him back in 2011, you would already be fucking married to him.” Tony pushed forward silently, his eyes trying to make it past the metal door in front of him and into the room. “Look at me Tony!” Finally, he snapped out of it and looked at Bruce in the eye for the first time since he had entered Tony’s lab. “If Steve gets out of this, and that is a ridiculously giant IF, you either spill your metaphorical guts to the man of your dreams or I spill your literal guts in front of Avengers Tower.”

Tony paled at the serious look Bruce gave him before he heard a hilariously stuffed up voice echo in the hallway. “Only if you get to that idiot before I do Bruce. He just made Steve do some fucking rediculous ass shit and nearly get himself killed because he thought he had something to prove.” Natasha glared straight at Tony, looking him in the eye with something close to hatred. “Ever since you came falling out of that wormhole, Steve has changed, trying to prove to you time and time again that he is a good man and deserves to be on the Avengers. Stop treating him like shit so that he can finally feel like he belongs here instead of staying up all night so he doesn't have nightmares and wishing he died on that damn plane.” She pointed through the glass right at Tony’s chest. “You’ve fallen for a good man Stark, so you better start treating him like the guardian angel he is for you. Got it?"

Tony nodded seriously before pushing Bruce's hand and diving into the unlocked room, gently closing the door behind him so that he wouldn't make any loud noises. He was alone in the silent white room, the white lights over head giving a comfortable feeling instead of the dying hospital vibe. There were no windows except from the one in the door and the bed was in the middle of the room, headboard pushed up against the far wall. Steve was laying still on the bed, hooked up to machines that read his heartbeat and blood pressure, but also one that was keeping him breathing. Tony walked over the bed slowly, the smell of blood and medicine making him wary of what he would see when he got close enough. Pulling the chair from the side of Steve's bed close enough to sit on, Tony lowered himself down, looking at the blonde's bandaged face. He lightly brushed his fingers over the bandages covering Steve's left eye and cheek, wrapping around his head, and a large patch covering his right cheek. The rough fabric-like material was thick and layered because according to what Bruce said, Steve was still bleeding because his body didn't process that he was hurt or some shit and there had to be something to keep all of the blood from escaping his body. Tony bit his lip, pulling the blanket back a little to see Steve's whole neck and chest covered in a heavy layer of bandages, all of them trailing down to his stomach, waist, hips… and most likely farther, but Tony didn't dare look. He did move the blankets up to where Steve always kept them, almost pulled up to his ears and tucked under his chin, knowing this because of his occasional nightmares about the blonde dying after Ultron. He had just asked Friday to keep an eye on Steve and possibly bring up the live video feed every so often so Tony could make sure that the soldier was sleeping peacefully and was still very much alive. Most of the time when he checked up on Steve, he was awake past a time that even Tony would deem exhausting, just sitting in the common room while doing paperwork or watching a movie while talking to Natasha. Whenever he seemed alone though, Tony would go to the common room and just lean on the doorframe for a few minutes to an hour until he felt like sitting next to the blonde or trying to go back to sleep. Tony never started a conversation though, and right now, he wished that he had spoken to the soldier more often so that he would know just how much pain he was in and possibly wake up. He just sighed, reaching under the blanket to take Steve's hand and pulling it out so that he could see if the bandaged hand would twitch at all. Tony took a deep breath, tears welling up in his eyes as he looked at Steve's pale face covered with bandages. "Hey there Capsicle. I hope you're having a lot of fun wherever you are in your mind right now. Shit. That was insensitive wasn't it and it sounded like I did this on purpose. Let me try again?" There was no answer from the still soldier and Tony nearly cried, but he kept it under control by remembering what Natasha had said. Treat him like the guardian angel he was. "Hey Angel. I'm sorry I made you feel like you had to save me. I was being a child and I could have just walked over to you through that stupid foam if I wasn't so obsessed with how my hair looked or what I was wearing. I just want to let you know that I'm okay, so you did a really good job in saving me, even if I did almost kill you. Bruce tells me that you aren't doing to well considering how much blood you lost and the fact that you are probably dying. If you keep this up for much longer, then you're going to need a blood transfusion and that's pretty bad news considering that I can't find the one person who could possibly help you with that, both of you being super soldiers and all." Tony wiped away his tears with one hand and smiled at the unresponsive blonde. "I know that we have the Avengers now, but sometimes, it just gets really lonely without you because I feel like you're family to me. If I wasn't such a coward, I would have asked you out already, and gotten to know your past, and I would have been able to help you with your war trauma, and… just and. I could have done anything for you if you asked despite how fucking stupid I am. I just really want to be there for you, but it's hard when the only thing I'm good at is fucking up and killing the people I love. It gets really lonely sometimes, I lost my mom, Jarvis, even my dad in some weird pitying way, but I never had someone I could say that I would gladly live through anything for. So you've got to live for me alright? So I have someone to live for myself." Tony brushes his lips over Steve's knuckles softly and places his forehead lightly on the blonde's chest because it made him feel better to feel the rise and fall of Steve's lungs. "Listen, it's not like I can't live without you, because I can despite it being hard to do." Tony took a deep breath. "It's just that I really don't want to live in a world without you Angel, because no matter what you say or do, whenever I'm alone, I'd rather be with you." Tony sighed lightly, knowing that he wouldn't get a response from the unconscious soldier, but glad he could say that anyways. It was stupidly cheesy and totally stupid, besides, it sounded like some sort of song. Tony stood up, ready to leave the room, but stopped for a moment to lean over and brush the hair off of Steve's head, pressing a quick kiss to the bandages there before he could change his mind.


	3. Loss Of The Heroes

"These are bullshit." Tony slammed a thick pad of papers in front of General Ross, throwing it back at his face as the Avengers watched. "We aren't some sort of dogs that need to be leashed, we are heroes that do their damn best to protect the world."

General Ross glared as Tony stared him right in the eyes, unwavering. "Not to be offensive Mr. Stark, but not everyone thinks that way. Some people believe that you are just a group of dangerous people, running around and enforcing your own laws on different countries that had no ill will towards America until you came along. That's what the accords are for. To keep you in line so that you will be allowed to operate anywhere in the world without starting a war."

Tony scoffed. "This isn't allowing us shit General. Do you even know what these papers contain? Not any sort of protection to do our job, but instead we would be some sort of slaves to a world security council that doesn't even represent one tenth of the world's countries." Tony glared at the general harder, causing the older man to shift slightly in discomfort. "We wouldn't even be able to take a piss in our own country without checking with a council that -last time I checked- was around eighty five percent Hydra last time." He snarled and flipped to a page that was dog eared, sliding it over to the General to show him a highlighted passage. "Look at this! According to your fucking accords, if someone came at any of us in the street with a gun, we would be unable to defend ourselves or else it would be considered an act of aggression. No bodyguards, no shields to protect ourselves with, not even pepper spray. What kind of shit are you trying to pull? I'm a genius, did you really think that I was dumb enough just to skim through something that could literally kill the Avengers?"

General Ross grunted. "I didn't assume anything Mr. Stark, I just expected you to sign the accords so that you would be able to return to your so called job."

Tony growled in a literal sense and the General stepped back in a moment of fear. "I'm not signing something that allows a corrupt politician to control one of my teammates by any means necessary and then order them to kill their best friend, no questions asked. There is no way I would let you do that. If you ever wanted me or my team to sign this piece of shit, then you would need a black marker, a few shredders, and a fuck ton of editing."

"Whoo! Go Stark!" Clint started clapping enthusiastically, quickly followed by Natasha, Thor and the rest of the Avengers present. Everyone was there. Except for Steve.

General Ross sneered at Tony with hatred. "Well if you want the accords to be under consideration for debate and editing, then I do believe you owe me the Winter Soldier." Then, he turned on his heel and left Tony in a state of shock.

Everyone froze, remembering what happened when Steve confronted the Winter Soldier and how it ended the last time with Steve in the hospital. They all watched as Tony stumbled away from the table, nearly missing the chair he was trying to fall into until Wanda used her powers to push it forward so he could collapse on something other than the ground. They all knew by now how hard Tony was trying to find Steve's old friend for the past five months because he was the only hope Steve had of surviving. Bruce threw a pitying look towards the brunette who had tears in his eyes, trying not to let them fall as he took a deep breath. "Well, now I have to decide between enslaving my friends or giving up the only chance to save Steve." He sobbed a bit, covering his face with his hands so that nobody would be able to see how much he was breaking. "How fucking ironic." Bruce was the first one to embrace Tony, quickly followed by Rhodey, both of them knowing how the genius felt about Steve. It was a horrible but moving experience as all of the Avengers moved one by one to hug Tony in silent acceptance, knowing that he would never give up on Steve no matter the circumstances. "No. God please no. No. No." Tony came apart in sobs, knowing what all of them meant by the simple gesture of a hug. "I can't. Please, don't make me choose. Please. Fuck, I can't lose all of you. I don't want to leave you behind."

An almost eighteen year old Peter knelt down in front of Tony, holding his hands gently. "It's going to be alright Tony. We would never ask you to give up the only chance you have to save Steve. It wouldn't be fair for us to ask you to do that."

Tony sniffed, trying to gather himself up a bit before talking again. "You know what happens if you refuse to sign the accords. They'll send the rest of the Avengers after you as if you were a Ultron sized threat. You'll die."

Peter shook his head sadly. "It's alright Tony. I'm ready to die. It doesn't scare me anymore. There are more important things in this life than just running around in a red and blue jumpsuit and I've been waiting to face them for months now."

Tony started sobbing again, squeezing Peter's hands. "You should be scared, you're just a kid. Someone your age shouldn't be ready to die just because some lunatic in a stupid council says you are a threat!" Peter had only been sixteen when he was made into an honorary Avenger to help in the battle with Ultron, but even then, he never lost his childlike excitement to be a hero, even after he was slapped off of a floating chunk of Sokovia by Ultron himself and nearly fell to his death. He had just become a little more wary, but he still kept all of his enthusiasm and awe, proof of how young he actually was. That all changed five months ago when Steve had gotten hurt with the foam. Peter blamed himself since he was the one that made the bomb go off in Tony's workshop, and suddenly he changed. He had gone from the innocence of a child to the maturity and self control of Vision or T'challa. It was a frightening change for Tony to see this kid become an adult even before he was of legal age, but what scared him the most was that this kid had the snap change just like he had after Afghanistan.

"Please Tony. I'm going to be fine. Nobody except the Avengers know who I am, so I can just continue with my normal life. Besides, if they do find me, I have some very amazing people protecting me." Peter smiled softly at his crying mentor, trying to calm and reassure him.

Tony just grimaced. "I hate Wade!" He wiped away his tears as Peter's cheeks blushed when he figured out that Tony knew exactly what he meant by amazing people. "But tell him that I want him to murder anyone who so much as looks at you weird. I'll cover everything up as long as you stay safe."

Peter sighed. "Not a chance." He squeezed Tony's arm. "I don't want you to worry about us. We will be fine as long as you are still here to lead the Avengers when all of this gets fixed, but right now, you need to save Captain Rogers."

Tony nodded slowly. "I'll save Steve. Then we'll fix everything as soon as we can."

Natasha glanced down at Tony and they shared a look that shared the same determination. "We can't lose the Captain Tony. No matter what, he takes priority to all of us. You can't run the risk of losing him, not now."

Clint slapped the back of Tony's head gently, trying to keep the tears from his eyes. "We can put up with being glorified slaves for a while as long as you come back to save us in the end. Make sure to be towing Cap along with you." Client's voice shook in fear. "You might also want to bring the Calvary. If you even have one."

T'challa nodded. "You can take the captain to Wakanda for the time being so he has a place to heal, but I can not involve my people in this war. You must find a way to sort this out yourselves."

Rhodey looks over to T'challa. "You're the king of Wakanda and I respect that, but you are an Avenger too. You have a duty to your team to fight by them when all of this goes to shit."

T'challa grinned a bit through his mask. "Whoever said that I wasn't going to fight. I am dropping from the Avengers to take care of my country, but who says I will not rejoin as part of the Calvary?" Rhodey grinned sternly, having his "that will do" face on.

Natasha sighed, putting a hand on Peter's shoulder. "How about we join the Calvary as well. I don't want you to get hunted down, so why don't we hang up the suits for a while until things settle."

Tony stood up, grabbing Peter by the shoulders. "Please Peter. Hang up the suit. Put it away for a while so you don't get hurt. This is too important to risk you getting hurt."

"Alright." Peter nodded, seeing reason. "It's the best course of action anyways. Time to figure out a plan and all of that."

Clint turned to Thor, the nervousness in his voice clear as day. "What about you Thor? Are you joining the Calvary?"

Thor shook his head. "I shall stay on the Avengers. I shall be very busy on Asgard though so I will not have much time on Earth." Thor winked and Tony smiled. Sly bastard was just going to skip out on Avengers duty. "How about you Clint? Are you going to be part of the Calvary?"

Clint swallowed thickly, nervous to be put on the spot. "I want to. I really just want to put away the bow and never touch it again to protect my family." He sighed, trying to relax. "I want to keep them safe, but I know that once I put that bow down I will never be coming back. I don't want my kids to grow up knowing that their father was too scared to rejoin the Avengers. Too scared and small to save the world."

Tony reached out a hand and put it onto Client's shoulder. "You know, none of us would blame you for stepping away for good. You were a deaf circus archer that stole things when you joined SHIELD, but you quickly became an amazing agent and an even better Avenger. You've done so much for everyone and you have even started a family. I think you deserve to live the rest of your life without worrying if your kids are going to grow up without a father. You are one of the very best of us Clint Barton and you made the best Hawkeye or teammate any of us could have ever asked for."

"Thank you." Clint let tears fall freely as he hugged Tony tightly. "Thank you so much Tony. I'll never forget what you've done for me." Wiping away his tears and releasing the genius, Clint changed his words to have a more joking tone. "The next kid is going to be named after you Stark. Be proud."

Tony laughed, feeling as if giant weights were lifted off of his chest. He would always be the leader of the Avengers and without Cap's signature on a very official document, that was never going to change unless he died. Right now, the Avengers were safe, but soon half of them would be gone and the rest would be on a mission to hunt down and kill the newest wanted fugitive, Tony Stark. It was a bittersweet farewell to all of the friends and soon to be foes in the room, but as long as the Earth was safe, Tony was fine with being the only original Avenger left besides a comatose soldier from world war two.


	4. Bucky Barnes and Anthony Edwards

Tony stepped into a dingy apartment in Bucharest with equally dingy clothes on, having an easy time blending in with the rest of the people on this side of town. He had technically brought a suit, or more like half of it, but there was no way that the boots and gauntlets were going to be much help against fifty or so men with high grade weapons. He slowly walked around the apartment, noticing little things like how the setup of the single room apartment could easily be moved to block any entrances or be used to protect against various weapons. When he picked up a little notebook, be felt a hand grab the back of his hoodie and slam him into the table, holding him there as a little whirring sound was made behind him. Tony sighed. "I assume that you're James Barnes. A friend sent me."

"I don't have any friends. Unless you're the man that Mrs. Mandelain sent with the plums?" The grip on Tony's hoodie disappeared and he stood up cautiously, turning to look at the man who had his hand outstretched hopefully.

Tony looked down at his calloused hands, expecting there to be plums there for some reason, but quickly shook his head in exasperation at himself. He really needed some sleep. "Sorry. I guess I don't have any on me right now."

The man in front of him looked sad for a moment before shrugging. "I guess they got lost on the way here. Don't worry I have problems forgetting things too. Do you want something to drink while you're here? You can call me Bucky by the way."

Tony was a little lost on how human the man in front of him acted, he had expected some sort of wild animal suffering in a cage. In his imagination it was nothing like this. "Uhh, no… thank you though. Um, I'm actually not here for Mrs. Mandolin, I need your help."

Bucky froze in place, right hand going to the knives in the corner slowly. "Who sent you? What do you want from me?"

Tony took a deep breath and steadied himself for what he was about to say. "My name is Anthony Edward St-" maybe he shouldn't spring the last name on the ex-assassin just yet. "Yeah. Anthony Edwards. I know a man by the name of Steven Rogers and he's not healthy right now. I need you so that we can find him a cure for something unfortunate that happened a while ago." Tony couldn't go into details right now, but he had at least caught the man's attention.

His hand stopped reaching towards the knives and he turned just the tiniest bit to let Tony know that his attention had been caught successfully. "Steve? What's wrong with him? Is he alright?"

Tony heated a beep from his wrist and looked down at a little black screen with many little green dots converging on two little red ones. "I can't explain, there isn't enough time, but if you don't come with me right now, Steve could die and I don't think you want that. There are almost fifty armed men getting ready to invade this apartment and they are not planning on taking hostages."

Bucky growled, a low and throaty noise of disbelief. "How can I know you're telling the truth? What should make me believe that Steve sent you?"

Tony had started panicking a long while ago, but now he was just fucking pissed. "Steve didn't send me! I came on my own because that god fucking damn idiot nearly got himself killed trying to save me because I did something stupid and childish!"

Buck smiled genuinely and Tony was surprised. "That sounds like the Steve I know."

Tony sighed in relief. "Great, now can we get out of here before someone blows us up?" Just then, a little clattering sound came from under the table and Bucky lunged at the grenade, covering it with his left hand as it blew up, throwing the flames wildly against the ground, causing Tony to jump away from the fire. "Shit! Shitshitshitshitshitshit shiiiiiiit!"

Bucky glared at Tony and shook his metal hand as it smoked. "Language."

Tony sighed as he ran towards the window with the man. "I can't believe that Steve spread that to you. Little goody two shoes can't stand swearing."

Bucky laughed, bullets raining down on the window from the outside as he shielded Tony with his metal arm. "Did you just call him a goody two shoes? And who ever said that he can't stand cursing?"

Tony glowered a bit as he shot a few of the men charging through the doors with his repulsors. "Steve hates swearing. He has a jar that he carries around and whenever anyone swears, they have to put money in the jar."

Bucky smiled at that, nearly getting shot in the head for it as Tony hit more special ops members with his repulsors to let them make a get away to the staircase. "I can't believe that Steve's become such a little bastard."

Tony turned, nearly shooting Bucky in the head as he shot someone behind him, causing the man to glare. "Watch what the fuck you say about Steve. Or else it won't be someone else's head and it won't just knock you out."

Bucky's eyes narrowed and he just stayed in silence as the two of them shoved the special operatives back into the stairwell and made their way to a window so they could escape. Tony blew out the window and stuck his head out, looking down at the closest building and cringing. This was going to take some talent. "Anthony, how do you suppose we get down there?"

Tony looked at the man with long hair and cringed. "We fly." Then, he hugged the other man's waist and tackled him out of the window, causing Bucky to dig his metal land into Tony's shoulder. They steadied a little, just barely hitting the flat roof that they aimed for before someone slammed into them, metal wings flapping to steady their flight. The two brunettes went flying across the gravel, groaning from the impact before jumping to their feet and facing back to back. Tony looked at their attacker who was kneeling on the edge of the roof, gathering strength or information, but Tony recognized him immediately. The infuriatingly annoying bird motherfucker. "Sam! What are you doing? That was too close!" 

Bucky frowned a bit. "You know him?" Tony nodded. "Is he on our side?" Tony nodded again.

Then the bird man looked up and Tony noticed that his eyes were glowing red. "Oh shitballs."

Bucky froze. "I take it that the glowing red eyes mean that he isn't exactly on our side anymore."

Tony bit his lip, bracing for impact as Sam started charging towards them. "Don't hurt him too bad. He's still one of us, he's just being controlled by Wanda who is being controlled by some assholes on a shitty council." The horrifying sound of metal on metal ricocheted over the building as Sam's wings collided with Bucky's arm and the arm rang like a gong being hit by a dying cat. Tony winced as more of the cat gong sounds flew through the air, but when he thought about Steve's best friend risking his life, he quickly forgot about the noise. "Sorry Sam! Don't kill me for this later." Tony shot the man straight in the face with both repulsor beams and knocked him backwards just enough for Bucky to shove him off the roof. "I told you not to hurt him too bad! He's probably dead now!"

Bucky rolled his eyes. "Relax Anthony. He landed in a dumpster."

Tony shook his head as he grabbed Bucky's hand and started sprinting, leaping from roof to roof. "Sam is going to hate you for that. He already hates you enough for ripping the steering wheel out of his car. Also, don't call me that."

Bucky nearly fell off of a building in shock as he ran. "I did what to his car!?"

Tony pulled the man into a hug so that he could jump down into the road, trying to get the trail of special forces off their tail. "You don't remember?"

Bucky kept running, letting Tony led him by the hand through the crowds and towards a road where they could steal a car or something. "I don't remember a lot, but things start coming back when I see something familiar. Like you, your face reminded me of someone I knew long ago." He was silent for a moment. "You hang out with the Avengers right? That's how you know Steve?"

Tony shot a few men with guns using his repulsors as he ran. "You could say that I guess."

"Do you know the kid of Howard Stark? You look a lot like… someone I used to know as a friend." Bucky sounded genuinely interested and kind of guilty.

Howard. Tony grimaced. Just say that I look like Howard you jackass. "Yeah I know him. I'm his… bodyguard." Dumb excuse. Fucking idiot. "People say that I look a lot like him."

Bucky let his expression go blank, almost disinterested. "So could you possibly introduce me to him? There's something I need to apologize to him for."

Tony tried to think of what it was as he jumped out in front of a car and stole it by pulling out the woman inside. "I'm going to need a reason. It has to be really important for you to get to him right now."

Bucky sat in the passenger seat, clinging to the upholstery like a wild animal as Tony slammed his foot on the gas, now being targeted by military vehicles and police officers as guns fired at the car they had stolen. "Edwards I really don't like cars. Especially not when they crash!"

Tony laughed. "You and me both buddy. Hold on!" He launched the car off of the ramp and into the busy street below, slamming on the gas immediately when he got the concrete. "Also, don't call me that." Tony swerved and ducked through traffic, leaving behind the vehicles still on the ramp that were firing at them, but Tony just floored the gas and tore down the street in the small ugly orange car. 

After about ten minutes of driving with no police, the two men ditched the car and started running, easier to lose the police if you could move in any direction except east or west. Tony pulled Bucky through a cornfield, tracking the police and their progress with the little green dots on his wrist screen. When Tony decided that they were far enough away from the police, he started dragging the ex-assassin back towards the city they had just left. "Wait. Why are we going back?"

"To get a car so we can get out of this place. Now you answer my question from earlier. What do you need to tell Stark?" Tony kept his voice low, constantly checking his wrist to make sure they were going in the right direction.

Bucky paled significantly when he heard the words Tony said. "Hey Ant? Is there anything other than a car that we could use? Maybe a truck or a motorbike. I would settle for a scooter."

"Don't call me that. And not unless you know how to hotwire a scooter." Tony just kept walking, staring intently at the little green dots moving around and keeping track of the little red ones to make sure they were going the right way.

Bucky nibbled at his lip nervously. "I don't like cars. Are you sure there's nothing else Tony?"

Tony sighed. "Don't call me that." He pulled Bucky out of the field and across some farmland to a barn, hoping that there was something in there that could be driven. Pulling open the old door, Tony looked around, only to find some old rust bucket of a truck that probably hadn't worked since the 30s. Great. The one type of vehicle that he didn't know how to hotwire or drive.

"Nice." Bucky smiled a bit and gestured to the truck. "Hop in Eds, I'm driving."

Tony frowned. He didn't like being driven places and he certainly knew that this bucket of junk wasn't going to move a meter. "Yeah. I don't think this is going anywhere. Let's look somewhere else."

Bucky had already walked into the barn and was rummaging around a bit, looking for things that might be laying around. "Oh come on Eds. She's not in too bad of a condition, just a little taste of home and a disguise or two and we will be on our merry way. No probs."

Tony groaned. "I'm going to regret this." And boy, was he ever right.

Half an hour later, Tony and Bucky were out on the road, in the ugly old trash can, quickly approaching a police block on the roads. Bucky had found a lot of old things in the barn, most of them having been untouched since the war, but they had all worked towards their advantage. Tony was now wearing a white button up shirt tucked into rough jeans and a brown bomber jacket, all of them too big on him and making him look like an old man. The shirt and pants he had on before were all rolled up in the stomach part to make it seem like an old man gut, and there was something smeared onto his head and in his beard to make it look like white hair. Tony was sure that it was flour mixed with a foul smelling hair gel. At least he wasn't dressed like Bucky though. He was wearing a house dress that looked a hundred years old and stockings that came up to his knees with fragile glasses attached to a chain sitting on his nose. He had rubbed some of the flour onto his face and neck to look paler, then put on lipstick. Actual lipstick that he had found in a truck with all of these clothes. Bucky had gone as far as to put on almost a full face of makeup from eyeshadow to blush, all of it looking surprisingly practiced. His hair was tied up into a high ponytail with a ribbon and a few locks of hair framing his face as a string of pearls sat on his neck. Even the way that Bucky had rolled up the legs of his pants earlier to make a fake bosom looked like it had been practiced and perfected. It was strange to watch him completely transform, but it was ridiculously stunning how convincing the disguise was, complete with the way he walked in the ladies shoes and the way he held himself exactly like Pepper did. Now that they were nearing the checkpoint, Tony was hoping that everybody thought that Bucky was as convincing of a girl as he did, despite him looking just a little bit bulky for a woman.

Bucky cleared his throat and started humming lightly, starting at his normal pitch and getting a little bit higher as he went on until he held his pitch and practiced humming it over and over again. Focusing in front of him at the police cars, Bucky held himself up straighter and gained an air of confidence that reminded Tony of Pepper again, causing him to slouch. Soon, they pulled up to the roadblock and the officer looked into the cab quickly, turning to his fellow officer and whispering a bit loudly. "Old man and young lady."

The other officer sighed and moved towards the cab of the truck. "Go check the back Adam." Then he walked to the window and looked at Bucky with a smile. "Hello there. We've got to do a quick check before we let you pass. Is that alright with you miss?"

Tony would have laughed his ass off if he wasn't so terrified of being caught and so in awe if Bucky's acting skills. He even sounded like a woman when he spoke and it was almost scary to think of. "If course it's alright officer."

The officer blushed a bit and looked down at his clipboard. "I'm going to need your full name and the name of your companion. Then I need your reason for leaving the city today."

Bucky smiled at the officer and compiled right away. "My name is Verna Bernadette Sapphic and this is my father, Cord Vincent Sapphic, my father isn't feeling well today, so I'm taking him home to rest after one of his doctors appointments."

The officer smiled at Bucky, obviously blushing, but trying to control the heat on his cheeks. Oh, if only he knew. "Why was your father at the doctor's today Verna?"

Bucky sighed, shaking his head. "It's a horrible thing really, Alzheimer's. My own father barely remembers my name sometimes and it is quite the sad thing."

"Shut your trap already and let's go." Tony tried not to grumble, but it just slipped out and Bucky shot him a disappointed glare. Sighing, Tony leaned forward to look at the poor boy and glared a bit more. "Sorry if he's bothering you."

Both Bucky and the boy outside the window froze. Before Tony realized that he had gotten the pronouns wrong, the boy relaxed and shrugged, looking at Bucky with pity. "Now I know what your problem with Alzheimer's disease is. Sorry about that Verna, I totally understand where you're coming from. I sort of had to cut off my parents because they refused to accept me and tried to send me to a conversion camp. A few of my coworkers still call me by female pronouns as well, but it's getting better."

Bucky beamed at the boy outside the window and reached out to shake his hand, letting his voice drop a bit closer to his original octave. "My name's Buck. It's just easier to pass as female sometimes when I feel like it. Sorry for tricking you."

The boy shook his hand with a giant smile. "My name is Ritchard, and it's fine. It's just best that you feel safe about yourself. My pronouns are he/him and I'm trans, how about you?"

Bucky shrugged. "I don't care much about pronouns and I'm guessing that I'm sort of fluid. Thanks for understanding Richard."

Richard just smiled. "What can I say Buck, people like us have gotta stick together." He paused, looking nervous for a second and glancing over to Tony who just looked away, disinterested. "Do you think that I could get your number quick?"

Bucky smiled and wrote his number on Ritchard's arm with a little smiley face and a heart at the end. "Call me soon okay?"

Richard smiled and nodded waving them away from the road block before calling out. "Before I forget, I'm twenty-five. How old are you?"

As Bucky pulled away, he waved his fingers at Richard and raised his voice a little to compensate for the distance. "I'm ninety nine." Then he drove away, leaving Richard more confused that he had been in the beginning of the day when he had been called into work to deal with the Winter Soldier, a Russian myth that his mother had told him when he was a child.

Tony glared at Bucky as the man (or woman) ducked back into the cab. "That was uncalled for."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "What was? The fact that I don't fit with my dick all the time?"

Tony scoffed. "Yeah, that's fine, sometimes Pepper feels the same way you do. What I meant was, it's uncalled for that you just picked up a guy and give him your phone number in a completely deadly situation."

Bucky just smiled. "That's what your problem was? Not the fact that I'm sort of… messed up?"

Tony sighed, starting to bull at his shirt so that he could change. "Just because your different in a certain way doesn't make you messed up. I mean, as long as I actually like someone and they don't mind dating men, I can really go for anyone." Tony tugged on his shirt and started unbuttoning it, but before he took it off the rest of the way, he turned to Bucky. "Don't look. I'm a little messed up. Scars and whatnot."

Bucky looked at Tony with a mischievous smile. "Just because you're different in a certain way doesn't make you messed up."

Tony chuckled, holding his shirt closed out of habit. "Well I guess you have scars you don't like either then. What's your story? I got my own bomb shoved in my face and dragged to a cave where I needed heart surgery and was told to make a Jericho missile. I was there for three months with a man named Yinsin." Tony pulled his shirt open a bit to let Bucky see the arc reactor as they drove on the empty roads. Scars covered his whole chest, but most of them were located around the metal contraption on his chest. Not many people had seen it, just Rhodey, Pepper, Bruce, and Steve, so Bucky was lucky to even know about it.

"Whoa. Stars." Bucky smiled.

Tony was confused. "What? Scars. Not stars."

Bucky shook his head. "Not what I meant. You have freckles on your chest and shoulders. They look like stars. You're lucky."

Tony blushed, not used to anyone noticing his freckles. Only Steve had and it had been a weirdly intimate moment. "How am I lucky? They're just freckles. It's not like they're going anywhere."

Bucky smiled, literally the extent of him laughing. "Well you notice these sort of things when your only freckles get cut off by crazy German scientists."

Tony raised one eyebrow, looking at Bucky in confusion. "How do you cut off freckles? Aren't they like a part of your skin?"

Bucky nodded. "Of course they are." He pulled down the top of his dress towards the left shoulder, showing a wild tangle of scars worse then Tony's ending abruptly when they hit the metal of Bucky's left arm. "Steve noticed them. I didn't even know that they existed until he pointed them out. There were just a couple small ones on the back of my shoulder and I guess they're gone now because of the metal arm."

Tony took off his button up and slipped on his t-shirt and hoodie, then leaned back, slouching into the rough seat under him. "Yeah, Steve was the only one to notice my freckles too. Also, the whole losing your arm thing must suck. Especially if you liked your freckles."

Bucky nodded. "You know, there are some on your cheeks too." He paused for a moment. "You know Eds, you're his type."

Tony's jaw dropped. "Uh, yeah. That can't be true. I am absolutely not his type, besides, how would you know that?"

Bucky smiled and shook his head. "I don't know a lot, but I do remember some things. For example, Steve likes brunettes with freckles and a strong personality. You should ask him out on a date, I bet you five hundred dollars he would jump at the chance and immediately say yes."

Tony shook his head, unable to process all of the thoughts racing through his mind. "Are you trying to set me up with your best friend while wearing a dress and lipstick?"

Bucky shrugged. "Is there something wrong with my dress?"

Tony shook his head, running his hands through his hair. "Nothing's wrong with your dress. You look very beautiful. It's just Steve. Are we talking about the same Steve here? Steve Rogers? Mr. American Pie? Captain America? Mr. Rogers? Steven Grant Rogers?"

Bucky nodded. "Yeah. Steve."

Tony scoffed. "I'm going to need proof that I'm Steve's type."

Bucky shuffled around in his seat a bit thinking about what to say. "Well, when we were teenagers, we dated for a while before deciding that we did better as friends. Then there was this really small girl that was just about as small as Steve, I think he called her Button, but they were together for a while. A few years later I took him to the Stark Expo and we met Howard before he was known as a playboy and that happened for a week or so until Steve got into the army and they broke it off. Then, there was Peggy, but Steve didn't really want to do anything about that because she didn't need a man and he was fine hooking up with Howard every so often."

Tony's face went a deep shade of red out of embarrassment and groaned. "Oh dear lord. That's why he was so obsessed." How could he have missed such a big clue, and it was before Howard had been known as a playboy. Dear lord, Captain Fucking America took Howard Stark's virginity and it was back when he was still small too. "Holy shit. One more thing to live up to I guess." Tony rubbed his temples, too much information flooding his brain at the moment. He always thought that he would be stuck loving Steve in silence for the rest of his life, no chance of the man loving him back, but maybe. Just maybe. "Okay, so what if I'm his type. It's not like he would ever like me, he's way out of my league."

Bucky grinned at Tony softly. "Eds, Steve doesn't have a league. Trust me I know. He was just a scrawny kid from Brooklyn bored out of his mind at a science fair after failing to enlist for a fourth time, but he still got Howard Stark when the man could have literally picked anyone else. If he likes you and knows you like him in the same way or at least similar, he will do anything he can to prove that he actually deserves what you're giving him."

Tony frowned a bit. "So he knew how I felt about him. He knew the whole fucking time and didn't say anything to me?" Why would Steve hide his feelings? It was the twenty first century for god's sake, people are a lot more accepting. "Everybody thought that he was just trying to prove that he belonged with the Avengers. That he could make his way in this fucked up world."

"Language Eds."

"Fuck off I'm having a mental breakdown." Tony rubbed his face slowly. In the last few moments, Tony had gained a lot of information, but the most shocking was that Steve probably liked him. At least according to Bucky, and the man in a dress knew Steve better than any of the Avengers despite barley remembering his past. 

"Are you okay? You look pretty pale." Bucky let one of his hands fall off of the wheel to rest on Tony's shoulder.

Tony shook his head. "No. No, I'm not okay because Steve is dying and he knew that I felt something for him, but he didn't say anything to me because everyone told me I was being a jackass but I wouldn't listen. Now, I might not even be able to tell him that everything was a mistake since I don't know if I can remake the serum with your blood or not or even if your type of serum would work on him." He pulled his knees up to his chest, trying to keep Bucky from seeing his tears.

"Wait. I get that Steve's sort of dying, but why do you need my blood to recreate the serum? Why not use his blood?" Bucky turned his head back to the empty road, trying not to freak out. "What the hell happened? And don't sugarcoat it because I want all of the details."

Tony took a deep breath, preparing to tell Bucky something he hadn't told Bruce or Rhodey. "Five months ago, I received a package containing a vial filled with this red liquid labeled Super Soldier Failsafe. I thought it was some sort of knockout drug that SHIELD developed before they were taken down that was powerful enough to knock you out just in case someone found out how to turn you back into the Winter Soldier."

Bucky nodded. "That's a good thing. It would make sense to have something like that around."

Tony shrugged. "I was going to destroy it, but I thought that I could use a small amount to keep Steve sedated if he ever got hurt really bad so that he could heal properly. So I started the experiments to figure out what it was made of, but I didn't get far because I dropped the damn thing right on some prank foam bomb that one of my teammates had set there and it broke. It was pretty terrifying to say the least when something malfunctioned on the prank bomb and it started spewing rainbow death foam, except I didn't know that it was dangerous until Steve came to save me after the foam had completely covered the whole workshop and it was taller than him. He walked right into the damn stuff and accidentally inhaled some, so he eventually got stranded on a table in the middle of the room, just coughing his liver out. I started freaking out, so I just jumped into the foam and got to him quickly because he had started bleeding all over. The foam didn't affect anyone except for Steve and Natasha, but then again, we didn't have any sort of super soldier serum running through our veins. I figured out a few months ago that the stuff in the vial wasn't some knockout drug, but it actually attacked any part of the DNA affected by the super soldier serum. It acted like an acid, burning away Steve's skin and lungs because the serum changed everything for him, but we washed it off before it could do any lethal damage, but not before the poison reached other things. He used to have the ability to heal really fast, but now he barely heals at all and his wounds took two months to start scabbing over when it should have taken a day or two for a normal human. He hasn't woken up since and everyone has started preparing for his death because he isn't getting better. Steve has gotten fevers, colds, rashes, and all sorts of other things, but it's all taking much too long to clear up and he's still struggling with a fever right now." Tony sucked in a large breath, tears clouding his vision again. "The only hope we have is overwhelming the acid with the serum, but I couldn't get anything from Steve because the molecules of the fucking poison merged themselves with the molecules of the serum, rendering Steve's blood useless for either recreating the serum or making an anti-poison. There was no way that we could use Natasha's blood because it was a different type of serum and it was introduced to her body differently, but you have the closest thing to what we need to save Steve."

Bucky was silent for a long while before he pressed his foot on the gas pedal a little harder. "Where do we need to go Eds? Where is he?"

Tony looked at his little wrist screen, pulling the map on it to where he could see the outline of the country. "Just a couple towns more and we can get on a jet I have waiting to take us back to Wakanda where Steve's recovering." Tony watched the two little red dots approaching one orange dot slowly, then let out a long breath. "Alright. Let's talk about a lighter subject. Why don't you like cars?"

Bucky froze up a bit. "I thought you said to talk about a lighter subject."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, I did. So talk. Why don't you like cars?"

Bucky sighed. "Can we not talk about this?"

"Nope too late."

"Please?"

"Come on, tell me. I won't judge."

Bucky sighed and shifted nervously in his dress. "There was a car crash. I didn't know what I was doing because it was when I was being controlled by Hydra, but it was my fault. I killed one of my only friends left alive from the war and I just remembered what I did to him today. What's worse is that I orphaned a kid I don't even know the name of, my handlers wouldn't let me know who they were and I haven't had access to the internet long enough to look since I got free from Hydra. I have a feeling that I should know who his kid is, but I just can't remember."

Tony went pale and patted Bucky's arm softly. "That's real rough buddy. I'm sorry Hydra made you do that." After a moment of silence, Tony wrapped his arm around Bucky's shoulders lightly. "I'm sure that kid would forgive you and understand what you went through."

Bucky snorted. "I doubt it. I killed their parents without even knowing how old the kid was or if they could take care of themselves when their parents were gone."

Tony sighed. "It wasn't your fault, it was Hydra making you do it. You didn't have control over it."

Bucky frowned at the road in front of him. "I know that it was out of my control, but I still want to take responsibility for something I did. Brainwashed or not, it was still me, still my hands and I need to find the kid and apologize for what I've done."

"I guess it makes sense when you look at it that way." Tony stretched his legs out and leaned over onto the seat connecting his and Bucky's. "You shouldn't feel guilty about it too much, I'll help you find the kid after we get back to Wakanda and save Steve. Just keep driving and wake me up when we get into the next town."

Bucky nodded. "Sure thing Eds. Just get some rest for now, and thank you for offering to help me."

"No prob Buck. I hope the kid forgives you."


	5. Finding The Cure

"I think this is going to work." Shuri had been helping Tony create a new super soldier serum using Bucky's blood over the past two months. She wasn't an official Avenger yet, still in the "friend of member" category, but Tony definitely was considering making her an honorary Avenger after all of this blew over. Peter would still be in that stage until he turned twenty one, so the same rules applied to Shuri and any other new Avengers that might come along. After all, that was the age that Steve first became Captain America. Right now though, Shuri was helping Tony test out different serum prototypes on Steve's blood until one of them eradicated the poison in his veins or at least got rid of enough to heal from. "This proto-serum looks as if it's separating the poison from most of the Captain's blood easy enough, but it looks as if it's not doing a lot for his healing capabilities."

Tony tapped his foot, looking at the screen and then glancing over at Bucky who was sitting in a corner, watching to see if he could help. "What do you think Buck? Do you think it might work well enough?"

Bucky came over to stand by Tony thoughtfully, their bubblegum pink heels clicking against the ground. "What if you added more of the serum? What would that do?"

Shuri shrugged and put one more drop of the serum onto the slide under a high powered microscope, the clear liquid mixing with the red of Steve's blood. Looking back to the screen connected to the microscope, the three of them watched what the cells would do. It looked as if everything was working correctly, the poison separating completely from Steve's blood and one of Tony's hands flew over his mouth while the other one grabbed Bucky's neon orange sweater sleeve. "Do you think this is it? Is it going to work?"

Bucky shrugged, but Tony had gotten to know them well enough in the past two months to know that they were panicking. "I don't know Eds. I really don't know."

Suddenly, all activity on the screen stopped and it looked as if everything was back to Steve's normal blood without any of the poison. Shuri let out a loud yell of delight and Tony jumped into Bucky's arms. "We did it Buck! We did it! Oh, you beautiful human being!" Wrapping his arms and legs around Bucky's midsection, the long haired brunette had to be careful not to break their heels from the weight of two grown human beings.

"Eds, you're killing me. If you break my favorite pink heels, I don't care if Steve wakes up, I will stab you." Tony quickly let go of the super soldier with a grin and just as his feet touched the ground again, the slide under the microscope shattered with a bang.

The shock of the noise so much like a gunshot caused both Tony and Bucky to fall into battle ready stances before Tony noticed the slide had been demolished. "Shuri. What the fucking hell just happened?"

Shuri quickly tapped a few buttons on the computer in front of her and brought up the cellular video footage from the last twenty seconds or so. The three of them watched as the poison split away from Steve's blood and for a few seconds everything was alright. Then, the blood cells started vibrating faster and faster until they exploded. Shuri just stared at the shattered slide that had splattered blood all over the microscope and table, surprised at the force of the explosion. "Well, I would prefer to keep Captain Rogers in one piece, so this proto-serum is going to have to be a no."

Tony examined the shattered slide, thinking a bit. "No, I think this one's right. Bucky was onto something though with the altering of the amounts of the proto-serum, so we should play around with that first. We just need the proper ratio of blood to serum and this should work, and remember we don't need all of the poison out of him, just about eighty five percent of it so the rest can pass naturally as Steve heals."

Shuri nodded respectfully and quickly. "I'll start the experiments right away." She paused, looking at Tony. "We need more of his blood. I don't have enough to accurately conduct the experiments."

Tony nodded sadly. "This better be the last time, you know he can't recover this much of his blood without a few weeks to do it." Shuri just nodded and shooed the two people out of the room so she could start setting up.

Bucky just fiddled with the green bracelets on their left wrist, playing with the beads and rubbing the plastic between their fingers. It was a system that Tony came up with so he would stop misgendering people in Wakanda. Red bracelets for he/him pronouns, yellow for she/her, and green for they/them. No stereotypical pink and blue bullshit. Most people wore the bracelets, but some didn't because they either forgot or just didn't want to. Today, Bucky was wearing the green bracelets despite usually wearing the red ones or even the yellow ones, but they wore their favorite pink heels whenever they wanted, no matter the pronouns. The heels were the first thing Tony gotten for Bucky after getting to Wakanda when the super soldier realized that they had no feminine looking clothing with them. Tony had taken Bucky shopping out in the city, pulling them in and out of shops with different types of clothing, dragging Shuri along since she was nonbianary but liked she/her pronouns more than they/them. She had helped Tony choose hideous clothes that Bucky had absolutely loved with all of their heart because of the sheer amount of color they had, pulling together items that really didn't fit together, like the black skinny jeans, neon orange sweater, and bubblegum pink heels they were wearing at this very moment. As Tony and Bucky walked towards Steve's hospital room, Bucky switched their green bracelet for a red one and shoved his hands in his pockets. 

Tony walked into the hospital room with Bucky trailing silently behind and walked over to a cabinet in the corner to grab some things used for taking blood as Bucky sat down next to Steve's bed. Walking to the opposite side of the bed as Bucky, Tony took Steve's hand and squeezed it. "Hey Angel. You're looking better than usual today." It was a true observation. Steve's wounds weren't all the way healed, but they didn't look all scabby and gross anymore like when Tony first said that it was alright to uncover the skin and take off the bandages permanently. Gently, Tony felt the inside of Steve's arm, looking for a familiar vein before tying a piece of elastic to Steve's bicep and cleaning the area with an alcohol wipe. "Don't worry Angel. You won't feel anything." When Tony lightly pressed the needle into Steve's skin, Bucky flinched from his own bad experience with needles and turned away, squeezing the unconscious soldier's hand softly. Tony mumbled soothing words as he took blood from Steve's arm and stayed quiet after he was finished.

"Hey." Bucky was holding out his hand for the bag of blood Tony held and he smiled lightly. "I'll bring that to Shuri and then take a shower. You just stay here and talk to him. I have a feeling he would want the company."

Tony smiled, looking over his shoulder at Steve's face. "Thanks Buck. This means a lot to me." Bucky just nodded and grabbed the bag, walking out of the room to leave Tony to walk back to Steve's bedside. "Good news Angel, we have a proto-serum that might just work to help you wake up, but the bad news is that we still don't know how the poison has affected your brain. I'm not sure what's going to happen when you wake up, but you need to wake up really soon so that we can save our team. T'challa has temporarily left the Avengers to hide us, Natasha has dropped off the grid, and Pete hung up his suit to stay out of trouble, but I think Clint has gotten stuck when he was going to retire and Thor is almost permanently off world now so he can't help. The council still has control over Wanda which means that the rest of the Avengers are still under her control. Knowing them, they are threatening to kill Clint if Wanda refuses to do what they tell her to. That means that we are the only two left. I need you Steven Rogers. Please come back to me." Tony leaned forward to gently brush a kiss onto Steve's forehead and frowned as he felt the rough skin touch his lips. Over half of Steve's face was covered in dry cracked skin where his wounds were healing, but a lot of the spots had already started showing signs of scarring waiting to be revealed when he healed the rest on the way. There was a lot of closed wounds on Steve's arms, hands, upper chest, and neck, but there wasn't as much on his stomach as Tony had feared. From Steve's bellybutton to thighs, there wasn't as much broken skin due to the fact that Steve usually kept more fabric there like a sweater tied around his waist, but just below that, Steve's legs were a complete mess of horrible marks and cracking skin. His feet were relatively unharmed, but it did seem as if the bottom of his feet got most of the broken skin which was weird, but understandable. "Angel. I hope you can hear me." Tony brushed his fingers lightly over Steve's completely ruined hand, kissing the knuckles lightly. "When you wake up, I just want you to know that I will never think of you any different for having these scars. You didn't judge me for mine, so I will never judge you for yours. You are the most beautiful man on the planet and nothing could ever change that, but if anyone even tries to prove me wrong, I'll hit them with a fucking bat." Tony sighed, digging around in his pocket before placing a dollar bill in a jar on the table next to Steve's bed. Anyone that swore in Steve's room had to put a dollar in the jar. "Sorry about that, but it's completely true. Come back to me soon. Okay?" Tony wasn't expecting a response, but he didn't get one despite silently begging for one. "I've got to go now Angel, but don't worry, I'll be back." Tony stood up, gently squeezing Steve's hand before letting go slowly and pulling the blanket up to where Steve liked it. Tony let himself look at the tube taped to the soldier's cheek that trailed into his mouth, keeping him breathing, softly brushing it before turning away and walking out of the room. 

Tony walked back to the lab with Shuri in it, preparing to help her with the experiments, but she wouldn't let him in. "Go to sleep idiot. You are no use to me this tired."

Eventually, Tony agreed and walked back to the apartment that he and Bucky shared. They had become good friends and Bucky still needed to see a familiar face first thing every day in this weird, futuristic city whenever he woke up from a nightmare. It put him at ease to have someone that he trusted in the same room as him, but it also helped him get used to socializing. Tony had been the one to suggest the set up because having a trained assassin trailing behind him half of the day helped him to relax about the brainwashed Avengers after him. It was also nice to have someone who understood what Tony had gone through because they had gone through similar things. Bucky also helped him feel more secure about his scars around people because they often talked about how they got them and compared shitty life experiences. That said, it was no surprise to Tony when he walked into the apartment to see Bucky sitting on the table fully clothed and soaking wet, eating a whole fucking bagel covered in peanut butter. "Having a bad day Buck? What was it? The war, Steve, Hydra?"

He looked up, surprised when he heard a voice and frowned. "Hydra. How'd you know?"

Tony looked at the soaking wet clothes, messy hair bun, place on the table, uncut bagel with a few bites in it, and peanut butter covering Bucky's fingers, then shrugged. "You hate peanuts."

Bucky looked down at himself and sighed. "I guess I forgot to take my clothes off before my shower." Throwing the bagel messily onto the counter, Bucky got off of the table and went to wash his hands in the kitchen sink. "Sorry about that."

Tony shook his head. "We are even now. You got to see me sitting upside down on the couch half naked while singing Baby Shark and trying to eat ice cream. I think this just about covers the embarrassing depressive episode wars."

Bucky smiled, still not laughing. "Did I win?"

Tony scoffed. "Again, Bucky. Baby Shark and ice cream. You won by a landslide."

Bucky smiled, peeling off his sweater and shirt and throwing them onto the table with the puddle already there. The two of them had long since been open with the scars on their chests, but they had a whole night of bonding over the whip marks on their backs from their abusers. Tony with Afghanistan and Bucky with Hydra. It had gained a lot of laughs as they got drunk off their asses, one thing that Bucky could do that Steve couldn't. That night had ended in such a heated game of truth or dare that they had gotten a visit from T'challa telling them to shut the fuck up and go to sleep before Bucky dared Tony to try and steal any more things from T'challa's room. It had started out as a heavy night, but quickly turned into a night filled with laughter and games with a friend. Except Bucky never laughed, only smiled or allowed himself a small huff of breath in amusement.

Tony bit his lip softly, rounding the table and placing a hand on Bucky's flesh shoulder. The one thing he couldn't stand, was anyone touching the metal arm without him initiating first contact because if how scared it made him. Not even Tony or Steve when he woke up. "So, Buck. Do you want to talk about it?"

Bucky shook his head softly. "Not really. I think I just need company. Do you mind?"

Tony smiled. "Of course I don't mind. You just go take that shower."

Bucky nodded, moving back towards the bathroom to take an actual shower as Tony retreated to the room they shared. It honestly reminded Tony of his time at MIT with Rhodey where there were two beds on opposite sides of the room, either side decorated to fit their respective owner. There was all types of tech everywhere and Tony had a bunch of metal scraps thrown about, half done projects littering his bed with AC-DC, Led Zeppelin, and MCR posters plastered in random angles all over the walls. Clothes were thrown everywhere, even on the high tech hologram casting design table, and there was still things thrown into his closet that probably shouldn't have been there. Like a car battery or some twisted hunk of metal that looked as if it was about to blow up. On the other hand, Bucky had his bed neatly made into a military tuck and there was nothing on the floor. There was a pretty normal wooden desk in one of his corners while his bed was shoved into the other corner, picture frames resting on the headboard. There was just a few, an old picture of him and a skinny Steve, a new picture of Bucky laying with Steve in the hospital bed, both soldiers covered in bandages because Bucky had ran face first into a glass door on accident after only a few days in Wakanda, and then one picture with Tony, the genius messing around with a holographic DNA strand while Bucky made bracelets, both of them facing the camera with an arm slung around the other's shoulders and dumb looks on their faces. There were one or two equality posters above Bucky's bed and one poster above the desk having to do with plums, but the rest of the wall was blank. Bucky's closet was sorted by color, his clothing all neatly separated into female, androgynous, and male sections with their respective shoe options were underneath. Most of the shoes were either high heels or Converse, but there were some Vans and random sneakers scattered between in bright colors. Bucky had colored all of his white shoes with little rainbows and there was almost no black except for the occasional sweater or pair of jeans. The only strange thing was the little room that broke off in the back of the closet that had two full walls dedicated to mirrors and a large vanity filled with dozens of makeup choices. 

Bucky had an interesting set up where Tony's was all chaos, but he just shrugged and started stripping, throwing his clothes onto the floor before rummaging around for a bit to come up with a shirt and a pair of pants that could serve as something to sleep in. As Tony heard the shower stop, he quickly shoved himself user Bucky's blankets, feeling like a burrito as the fabric trapped him to the bed, facing the wall. Tony heard rustling around as Bucky got dressed, then felt a pull as he untucked the blankets and climbed into the warmth, causing the genius to turn around and face Bucky. "Hey you fucking weirdo." Tony smiled with a chuckle, looking into the blue eyes of his friend.

Bucky frowned a little at the unneeded swear word, but then smiled back at Tony. "Hey yourself stranger. I haven't seen you in forever."

Tony gasped in mock horror, unable to hide the smile on his lips. "A whole entire five minutes. Whatever should I do?"

Bucky grinned. "You should probably shut up and go to sleep so we can figure out what Shuri finds in the morning."

Tony's eyes went wide, remembering why they were in Wakanda in the first place, then he nodded and closed his eyes. "Alright. Goodnight Buck."

Bucky smiled. "Goodnight Eds."

Tony was happy do drift off with his best friend in this whole mess right next to him, having crawled into Bucky's bed a few times himself after nightmares. All of it was a completely normal occurrence since they slept together more than they did apart, seeking comfort with the person they felt safest with during this whole ordeal. As Tony started to drift off to the sound of Bucky's breathing, he smiled because it was the safest he had felt in seven whole months.


	6. I Won't Let Go Of Your Hand

Tony had his hand in Bucky's as they both stood on one side of Steve's hospital bed, Shuri on the other side with a large syringe filled with a bright blue liquid. "You ready? I'm positive that I have the calculations right this time and he won't blow up."

Bucky wordlessly nodded as Tony just stood there frozen, having waited nearly a full month for Shuri to check, double check, triple check, and even quadruple check her experiments to make sure that the amount of proto-serum to blood was balanced on the fine line between not enough and blowing up. Tony watched as Shuri lined up the syringe with the entrance into the IV tube and hesitated, checking over math and equations in her head. "Just put it in already, PLEASE!" Before she could chicken out, Shuri started to press the end of the giant needle and Tony and Bucky watched. as the blue liquid slowly trailed through the tube until all of it was inside of Steve's body. The three of them held their breath, waiting for Steve to blow up or something, but they just waited for something to happen as Steve's skin turned gray. Tony grabbed Steve's hand in a panic, but quickly pulled it back because of the sticky blackish liquid coming out of every one of Steve's pores. Soon, all of the black stuff was sloughing off in gel-like sheets, taking the dry and cracked skin with it as Tony brushed it gently away so that it wouldn't cover Steve's mouth or nose, despite the tube keeping him breathing. The whole bed was covered in black gel and dead skin, but Steve was left with raw, barely new skin covering up his old wounds, the scars that were going to be left behind obvious now. Tony went pale with panic and looked up at Shuri. "Why isn't he healing properly? What's wrong?" Before she could answer though, Steve's skin twitched, moving very slowly to cover places that had started to bleed again or were leaking a clear yellowish liquid. "Thank god." Bucky sighed in relief and hugged Tony, silently thanking him. "Thanks Buck. You really saved him."

Bucky shook his head. "You and Shuri created the serum Eds."

"It was your blood though that saved him Buck." Tony jostled Bucky's shoulders playfully. "And here I was three months ago, almost getting you killed in Bucharest."

Bucky rolled his eyes and let out a dry, mocking laugh. "Ha ha, very funny. I will never allow you to drive me anywhere ever again and I'm pretty sure that you have convinced me that I hate flying too."

Tony laughed, audibly relieved that Steve would be waking up soon and hugged Bucky again. "Don't worry. I'll take you for a real fly soon and your mind will change about that part."

Bucky smiled, looking down at Steve's face, finally going from unconscious to just temporarily sleeping. "I'll have to take you up on that offer after Steve wakes up."

"I'm going to keep you to that someday." Tony let his hand fall from Bucky's shoulders to walk over to Steve, just calmly watching the miniscule movements of the super soldier's skin. "Shuri, I'm staying here until he wakes up and you can't stop me."

Shuri grinned when she made to walk out of the room. "I wasn't even thinking about stopping you. I think it would be best if you watched over him." She grabbed the doorknob, and started walking out while waving a hand over she'd shoulder blindly. "It's easier to have a specialist watching over him just in case something goes wrong. I've got to go because I haven't slept or had a good solid slice of pizza unnecessarily brought here from New York in a long while." She waved as she slipped out of the door. "Make sure Bucky sleeps if the Captain doesn't wake up in the next seven or eight hours. And remember to take out the breathing tube soon."

Bucky just rolled his eyes and sat down on his favorite chair in Steve's room, watching the rise and fall of the blonde's chest, quietly counting the breaths in the corner of the room. Tony on the other hand was just sat in his usual chair that was pushed right up against Steve's bed. The black goop had been quickly deflating, evaporating and turning into dust, so Tony slowly brushed the remnants off of Steve's face and arms. He brushed all of it off of the bed onto the floor with the promise that he would clean it up later, but the damn stuff left black smears all over like charcoal, so Tony just left the smears that he couldn't do anything about. He picked up Steve's hand, watching the broken skin heal and the mess of scars up to his hand start forming. The scarring on his hands was almost as bad as the scarring that would start showing soon on his legs, but it didn't matter, because to Tony, nothing could change how perfect this man was. "Congratulations Angel. You're going to wake up soon and be able to walk around. You might have some problems with it at first since you've been asleep for a long time, but I know that's not going to stop you because you're a Capsicle, the most stubborn man on the planet. Well, second most stubborn because there's still me to think about and I can be a little dick sometimes."

Bucky paused his counting to look at Tony, just saying, "Jar" before picking up again.

Tony sighed, pulling out a dollar and shoving it into the swear jar on Steve's bedside table. "You know Angel, I thought this was a private conversation for a moment." He shot a glance over his shoulder at Bucky who was mumbling his numbers, then he turned back to Steve. "I guess it's not right now, but in the first moment possible, I'm going to steal you away from this place and take you for some tacos or pizza. I don't know which one you prefer, but according to JARVIS the last time we talked about three months ago, you have a surprising liking for junk food. I really didn't expect that from you, but we can always just go out to some joint in the middle of Nevada to grab some good old fashioned cheeseburgers. Hey, that's actually a pretty good idea. I'll plan the trip, try and get something set up for the both of us to block Wanda's powers so we aren't getting mind controlled the second we step out of Wakanda. Or how about going to New York for shawarma. I know how stupid that sounds because of the risk of being caught, but we could send a message to those council bastards about not messing with the Avengers while letting our team know that we are still coming so save them. See Angel, I can make plans and build strategies, you aren't the only one." Tony sighed, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. "You're still the best at it though, so I'm going to need your help if we want to do that. Or we could just eat here. I don't know what we should do, you've been asleep for so long and I'm not sure you even know what's going on around you. It gets lonely over here on this side of life, even with your little puppy to keep me company. By puppy I mean Bucky since he followed me around like a puppy for the first few days. It was pretty funny, but I guess I can't judge because I'm probably going to do the same to you when you wake up. There is no way in hell that anything will get me to let go of your hand because I trust you Angel and I will never leave you." Tony leaned forward to place a light kiss on Steve's forehead, then let his head fall into the blonde's chest lightly, taking a deep breath to calm his pounding heart. "I love you Steven Rogers. More than my own life. More than anything in the world. So please, come back to me and never fly away ever again."


End file.
